“But don’t you think he is a little too much inclined to have his own way?” inquired Marcus.
“I have suspected it was so,” replied his mother; “but as you have had the principal management of him, you can judge best about that.”
“For instance,” resumed Marcus, “I gave him to understand, when he first came here, that we didn’t want him to have anything to do with Sam Hapley.”
“So did I,” interrupted Mrs. Page.
“I never actually forbade him to associate with Sam,” continued Marcus, “but Oscar knows what he is, and he knows better than to go with him. And yet they are getting quite intimate. They were off together nearly all the afternoon, yesterday, hunting squirrels, as Oscar says; and this evening he has gone off with him again, notwithstanding I have told him two or three times that we all made it a rule not to be away from home after dark, except by special arrangement.”
“I told him the same thing, the last evening he was out,” added Mrs. Page.
“He has gone contrary to my wishes in several other matters,” resumed Marcus. “There’s tobacco, for one thing. I am satisfied that he is beginning to use it again; you know he formed the habit in Boston.”
“Yes, but I hope he isn’t sliding into it again,” said Mrs. Page.
“I think he is,” replied Marcus; “in fact, I am very certain he is, for I have smelt tobacco in his breath, several times. I have talked to him about the bad effects of tobacco, but didn’t let him know that I suspected he used it. Last Saturday I wrote something on the subject, and addressed it to him, and dropped it into our letter-box. I have got a copy of it—here it is.”
Marcus took from his pocket a note, and read it aloud. As it may possibly interest some young reader who is trying to cultivate an acquaintance with tobacco, it is here given entire.